A released prisoner who was given a home by his uncle was jailed for more than five years for robbing him and his girlfriend at knifepoint.

But Christopher Sowerby, 22, responded to the sentence saying: “Smashing, I have done well there. I’ll only do two years.”

The 22-year-old had been drinking and taking drugs with money his uncle gave him before he robbed the couple as they lay in bed in the Middlesbrough house at 1.30am on March 5.

Sowerby appeared in the bedroom with a six-inch kitchen knife demanding their money.

He snatched the girl’s mobile phone and his uncle was so scared that he handed over £40.

Prosecutor Emma Atkinson told Teesside Crown Court that the uncle followed him out of the house demanding his money back but Sowerby held the knife an inch from his neck threatening “Don’t even try it”.

The uncle said the robberies left him physically shaken, and he no longer felt that he could trust people.